Patent GB-191012534-A (GB)
Title: Improved Fibre Working Machinery.
Inventor: SCHLUMBERGER ROBERT
IPC: D01H5/02
Filed: 1910-05-23
Granted: 1911-05-23
Abstract: 12,534. Schlumberger, R. May 23. Gill boxes and frames; lap-forming apparatus. -Apparatus for working entangled masses of fibre, for instance hackled tow and wool, in preparation for combing, carding, or like machines, comprises an endless band upon which the entangled masses are laid, and carried to a retaining-device, which is then closed, and a pair of pincers which pull a tuft of fibre out of the retaining-device and carry it to a feed arrangement upon which the tufts are laid in stepped fashion to form a fleece. The fibres are laid on the endless band 1, Fig. 1, and are conveyed up the wooden table 2 by a second endless band 3. At the end of the table 2 is a grating 4, through which a set of needles 5 on a reciprocating gill faller 6 pass and project into holes in the table 2, thus acting as a retaining-device for the fibres. The projecting end of the mass of fibres is then seized by an oscillating pair of pincers 7, 9, which close upon the fibres and then move away, drawing out a tuft which is carried by the pincers and laid upon the surface of a roller 13 provided with needles. The end of the tuft is dabbed into the needles by a brush 15, and the pincers open and move back towards the retaining-device, allowing the fibres to be drawn through them by the more slowly moving drum. A plate 16, which follows the pincers, spreads the fibres on the drum, on which they are subsequently pressed flat by an endless band 17, and from which they are doffed by a comb 18. The retaining-device has in the meantime been opened, and the fibrous mass fed forward, so that when the open pincers return, a projecting end of fibre is ready for them. To support the end of the fibrous mass in readiness to be gripped by the pincers, a supporting-member 11 is arranged to move forward as the pincers move away, and an additional member 12 on the pincers supports the tail of the tuft torn away. In a modified form of the apparatus shown in Fig. 15, the fibrous mass is fed forward by a grating a and a gill faller b, which are moved backwards and forwards by an eccentric e and bell-crank d, the gill faller being at the same time lowered and raised to engage the fibrous mass and to release it. When the gill faller is raised, as the feeding-device moves backward, the fibres are engaged by jaws i, j which hold them, but when the device is in its rearmost position the screw p releases the catch c and the gill faller is drawn down by the spring q and engages the fibres, which then move forward with the device, the jaws i, j being simultaneously opened to allow this. The end of the fibrous mass is supported by a plate s arranged so that it can be pressed back against a spring r by the pincers t, which seize the end and draw out a tuft, carrying it across to an'endless band u, on which it is pressed by a roller v and carried forward to a gill frame, the pincers meanwhile having opened and moved back to seize another tuft. If the tuft is to be placed in the combing-field of the retaining-device of a drawing-frame, the fibres are passed from an endless band A, Fig. 16, under a pressure roller B, to an endless lattice C provided with needles, or to one or more needle rollers, or to a gill box. They then pass on to a table J, under which a supporting-plate K and counterweight L are arranged, and to the oscillating pincers M, N, which transfer them, tuft by tuft, to a retaining-device U, into the needles of which they are pressed by a rail W, which is operated by a crank Z, and by a pressure roller V operated from the retaining-device.